Any recommendations for boat surveyor in South/Central Florida?

[Rick1]

We recently purchased a 2007 Cruisers Yachts 340. The surveyor was excellent. Very knowledgeable and professional. https://www.stemtosternsurvey.com/ The guys name is Butch Immediato.

[nomadRD]

Originally Posted by StuartSailor

Try Brian Stetler at amarinesurveyor.com, 561-312-7544. I used him a couple of years ago. FWIW, he also surveyed the catamaran for Gone with the Wynns. Good luck.

Jesse

I second this. He did two for us: the boat we didn’t buy, then the one we did. This was in January 2020. We found him to be informative and excellent!

[MWard54321]

Kelly Carver - KC Marine Services in Ft. Lauderdale - excellent guy, very detailed work, knows older sailboats and what to look for. Highly recommend!

[raymondrains]

We've used Paul Anstey several times - I reccomend him.

954-270-1949
panstey@mindspring.com

[Fritz_K]

We used Cecilia Potts and could not have been happier. I highly recommend her.

[SharAndy]

We've used Jonathan Sands with Atlantic Marine Group a couple of times. Excellent CV (the credentials are the best I've ever seen) and great reputation. He's a Naval Architect and Marine Engineer Professional Marine Surveyor based in the south FL area. He travels all over and in high demand. We used him in the Bahamas. Contact at: jons@atlanticmarinegroup.com

[MicHughV]

There is some validity to your price point/ boat length requirements.
Looking at boats in the 35'-40' range that are priced at $20-25 range is typically a sign of some "issues"

Today's boat are made from fiberglass, so they tend to hang around forever, but its all the other bits and pieces that fall apart.

It may be worth the effort to "up" your pricing target. Yes, I understand, no-one wants a boat payment in addition to dockage, etc..but....

If it's a low price, it generally means lots of "labor" for you...

Every boat owner out there, off course, would like to get "top dollar" for their boat, but reality is a hard teacher.

I would say that some boat owners are quite fastidious in their maintenance efforts, but plenty are not, leaving their once pride and joy to waste away in some marina or yard.

Back in the late 70's when I built my boat, I had it in my mind that I could build a 38' boat for $9K....as this was all the money I had.

I had it all figured out to the last dime....or so I thought.

3 years of labor later, plus about $20K had the boat in the water, but not ready to go anywhere.
By the time I had added all the "bits and pieces" several more years had elapsed, and my investment was now around $55K...
This was all back in the late 70's, early 80's.

To get anything remotely decent in the size you are looking for is likely gonna take $100K...either that, or lots of labor.

There are countless threads on here, Youtube, etc, about folks that bought some or other " bargain" boat, then ploughed several years of hard labor into the boat.

But.....Keep at it....something will drop into place for you...these past two experiences are just signs on the road map for you....

[pianopraze]

Learning a lot. I'm still looking.

You're right about owners and no maintenance. That's a lesson I just learned.

Might have to go smaller to stay in price range.

Or just get lucky.


BTW Cecilia Potts was my surveyor on the Pearson. I also recommend her.

[MicHughV]

yep, I've been hanging around marina's for a long time, It would be fair to say more than /12 half the boats havn't seen their respective owners in months..so the boat basically just rots away from "neglect" rather than actual "use".

Lots of time, a surveyor is not even needed, you can just tell from the mold, dirt and grime and general outside condition, that the boat has suffered
owner "neglect"..it becomes another love affair gone bad...

A good friend of mine was like that. General boat maintenance got the better of him, so his boat just wasted away. He had to drop his " asking" price on numerous occasion before he finally able to sell it..er...give it away...he could have washed it prior to a showing, improving his odds of selling it....but even that became " too much effort"

you know the adage....the two best days in a sailboat owner's life...the day he buys it...and the day he sells it"